Abstract:

The COVID-19 pandemic, as a global threat to humanity, is likely to instigate a variety of collective responses in the society. We examined, for the first time, whether the COVID-19 threat perception is related to attitudes towards Syrian refugees in Turkey, theorizing a dual pathway whereby pandemic-induced threat would relate to both pro- and anti-immigrant feelings. Drawing upon integrated threat theory and models of collective-threat regulation, we expected that pandemic threat would lead to more exclusionary outgroup attitudes through increased immigrant threat, whereas we argued that perceived COVID-19 threat would promote inclusionary attitudes through creating a common ingroup in the face of a global threat. Using online search volume data at the province level (Study 1, N = 81) and self-reporting measures at the individual level (Study 2, N = 294), we found that the COVID-19 threat was directly associated with more positive attitudes towards refugees (Study 1 and 2). Study 2 further revealed indirect positive (through a sense of common identity) and negative (through perceptions of immigrant threat) links between COVID-19 threat perception and outgroup attitudes. These results highlight the importance of integrating threat regulation and social identity perspectives when assessing the implications of pathogen-related threats. Keywords: COVID-19, threat, attitudes, pandemic, common ingroup, refugees How to Cite: Adam-Troian, J., & Bagci, C. (2021). The pathogen paradox: Evidence that perceived COVID-19 threat is associated with both pro- and anti-immigrant attitudes. International Review of Social Psychology, 34(1), 11. DOI: http://doi.org/10.5334/irsp.469 Handling Editor: Rosa Rodriguez-Bailon University of Granada, ES X close 554 Views 156 Downloads 12 Citations 2 Twitter   Published on 11 Jun 2021 Peer Reviewed  CC BY 4.0  Accepted on 10 May 2021            Submitted on 09 Jul 2020 Introduction Social psychological research has established that threatening events, either at the personal or collective level, can significantly affect individuals’ cognitions and behaviors (e.g., Xu & Mc Gregor, 2018). As such, natural catastrophes (e.g., earthquakes), man-made disasters (e.g., nuclear accidents), and violent conflicts (e.g., terror attacks) often generate some ‘compensatory responses’ (Jonas et al., 2014) such as attitudinal and behavioral shifts on domains that are not directly related to the immediate situation. For example, research shows that individuals are likely to stereotype outgroups more after reminders of one’s mortality (see Castano et al., 2002). Hence, although this mostly right-shift movement as a response to societal threat to safety and perceived control often serves as a psychological mechanism that provides individuals with some adaptive functions and helps in the reduction of anxiety and uncertainty (e.g., Mirisola et al., 2014), it may undermine tolerant attitudes towards outgroups such as immigrants and refugees (Van Bavel et al., 2020).

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